I have recently had the privilege of interviewing Joel Manby, the former Saab USA President from June of 1996 until April of 2000.

Below is his updated and candid account of our interview, it is a great read, so take the time and enjoy!

Thank you Joel for your time and contribution, we all appreciate it!

Saab History: How Did you end up joining Saab Cars USA in June of 1996?

Manby: I worked at Saturn as a Regional Vice President and was picked to lead Saab Cars USA in order to improve the dealership distribution network by making it more focused and more profitable.

I used to co own some retail dealerships so I knew how important the car buying experience was in the customerâ€™s final decision on what brand to buy, especially since it was the 2nd most expensive purchase a family would make after a home. I also knew that our competitors like BMW, Audi and Volvo had a much more profitable and focused dealer network. I was determined to reinvigorate the dealership network to turn around the car buying experience to one that was enthusiastic for not only the customer, but the dealership’s sales team as well. We were asking dealers to invest in exclusive dealerships and sales people so in many cases we actually removed some dealers who were not committed or dueled with poor brands in order to get other dealers to invest heavily. Our basic goal was to go from selling 25,000 Saabs through 360 poorly focused stores (average = 70/year per store) to 40,000 sold Saabs through 240 stores (a more focused and profitable average of 170/year per store). Dealers need to know they can be profitable before they will invest.

Saab History: How did this strategy work?

Manby: The units sold per dealership increased to over 150/store as did the national sales figures which topped 40,000 during my time. We had more exclusive stores than any time in recent history and had the 2nd highest sales year in Saab history to that pointâ€¦.so I would say it worked well. We also gained huge share in Southern California where we were almost non existent.

Saab History: Consistent advertising was never something that Saab had, what did you do to turn this around?[…]

Saab History has received yet another extremely rare Saab tv ad, this time from the “Find Your Own Road” advertising campaign of the mid-nineties. This particular ad features a Saab 9000 Aero titled “Turbo Rush”.

A Saab Enthusiast has recently written about his excitement with his 2003 Saab 9-5 Aero and has given Saab History permission to share some of it!

Here’s his opening line wow!

“If you can’t take to the sky …
Take to the road, preferably in a machine that will allow you to move as quickly (and safely) as possible. I’m a huge believer in the power of transportation. It transforms our world and lets people reach beyond normal definitions of space and distance. “

According to a Saab History frequent visitor, Ivor M, the Saab Car Division worked with Saab-Scania to produce their first V-8 engine, effectively two combined 2.0 liter 4-cylinder engines in 1989.

He’s actually be in touch with one of the original design engineers responsible for the production of this engine! Great work Ivar! Although this is an interesting project, I believe it’s probably best that it was not given the green light because it would go against Saab’s philosophy of “rightsizing” anyways.

I have spoken with the test driver, design engineer and the person responsible for the production (all the same person) of totally 10 engines from SisuDiesel in Linnavouri.

Only 2 were assembled. 8 engines went back to SAAB Valmet factory and according to Valmet today, they have no parts or tools for casting left and they do not know what happened with the parts after the project was shut down by GM.

The engine had a specially made gear box and it will be very difficult to reproduce this engine again.

I will search more in Finland, if somebody assembled more engines from the parts of the remaining 8 engines.

General Motors Launches Saab 9-3 Range “Surprised” from a series of ads for the rest of their brands. The ad begins with the IIHS safety ratings about the Saab 9-3 range, then ends with a “surprised” question at the end, followed by a spliced in “red tag” event blurb which ends January 5th, 2009.

In General Motor’s attempt to sell their brand and make some cash in the process, they are working hard at eliminating inventory, but potentially at the expense of customers, who may be turned away by the association with GM. Remember the old saying “Guilty by Association”?

So, in answer to GM’s ad, I will answer their “surprised?” tagline. I am surprised how you bought a brand, then nearly 20 years later you decided to sell it because you finally had realized that you’ve exhausted it and now actually had to invest it. Furthermore, I am also surprised how you believe that today, after all of the ongoing negative press GM is associated with, you believe it is a good idea to associate a good brand like Saab with GM, and tell everyone about it too!

So yes, I am surprised of many things, but I should say I am no longer surprised by GM’s mismanagement of Saab as it’s par for the course. They have proven that they do not value investing in the Saab brand. Surprised? Not so much, if you spend the time and do your research.

“The bottom has fallen out of the markets for Volvo cars (owned by Ford) and Saab (owned by General Motors).

The government has been forced to provide a Â£2bn helpline to the industry and there is visible anger at the plight of Volvo cars and Saab, amid claims they have been mismanaged by their American owners.

“They have been owned by American companies who have not invested in their development,” says Rolf Wolff, head of the school of business at Gothenburg University.

“Both are very strong brands and they make very good cars, particularly in comparison with American producers. They have simply been badly managed.”

Finance minister Anders Borg says that when the world begins to buy again, Sweden will be in a strong position to sell.

“We have done a lot in terms of investment in research, education and infrastructure. We have also done very important structural reforms, so I believe the Swedish economy will come out of this recession in a very good fashion – eventually.”